My View – Stopping city’s gang violence will cost us

Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 5, 2012

Regarding the recent Tribune story, “Bringing the church into the fight” (June 7): What’s it going to take to stop youth gang violence?

That is a tough question.

During the past 23 years, I’ve seen a lot of youth-serving programs come and go. Whether it was the latest national best practice/evidenced-based programming didn’t seem to matter.

Because this is Portland, we do things differently in the great Northwest. Many people have tried to help Portland become a sprawling metropolis like Seattle or San Francisco, with all of their traffic, parking and general congestion issues, but Portland is still a medium-sized city that you can get around in not too much time. A city where relationships and who you know take precedence over how many initials you have in front or behind your name.

You can enjoy the best of all worlds in our fair city, mountains to the east, ocean beaches to the west, hiking and fishing to the north, and wine country to the south.

Then there are the vast and growing amounts of exotic restaurants creating and serving flavors from across the globe, and entertainment districts turning inner-city neighborhoods into international gathering places.

Portland’s arts district is among the best, featuring great and award-winning artists who play all genres of music.

I’d be remiss not to mention the Northwest’s greatest pastime, coffee house gatherings. Portland has played host to some of the film and television industry’s latest and greatest movies and TV series because of its picturesque backgrounds, beautiful landscapes, open spaces, architecture and intriguing resident populations.

Portland is a very laid-back, progressive place to live. More people are finding out about our little Northwest secret and are trading in their wingtips and stilettoes for flip-flops, all-terrain vehicles and bicycles.

‘You can’t handle the truth’

While there are some who can afford all that our city has to offer, there is another reality — one that seems too terrible and embarrassing for some to admit to themselves. How can a city with so much going for it have so little to offer to its most vulnerable populations?

Our children are killing each other and ruining their futures, but it seems we are too busy doing ‘grown-up things’ to notice — either that or we just flat out don’t care. We have to pick a side and a purpose with all of the love and passion we say we have, and get involved.

We choose to educate ourselves about things we want to do when it comes to projects around the house, fixing a problem with our vehicles, researching what school our children should attend, finding neighborhood demographics to choose the best places to live in, where the best yoga and Pilates classes are.

But we won’t take the time to research or have a conversation about Portland’s other reality: why we lead the nation in homeless youth and runaway youth and why heroin, meth, crack and guns are so available to our children? Why is Portland on the map and close to the top in the nation for human trafficking of minors? Why do kids continue to inflict gang violence on each other despite 1994’s Measure 11 mandatory sentencing law? Oregon voters at the time thought it would put an end to youth/gang violence because they thought everyone involved would be locked up.

Perhaps the attitude that went along with passing the measure is still pervasive today.

I’ve attended more than 369 youth funerals, and I’m angry as hell about it. I don’t wear this as a badge of honor, but rather a disgrace. These are real people (dying) and it’s happening in our city, right under our noses and on our watch.

I get asked all the time: What will it take to get rid of gang violence? To quote Jack Nicholson’s famous line from the 1992 movie “A Few Good Men”: “You Can’t Handle The Truth!”

Because the truth in this arena will mean making sacrifices, drawing hard lines and making definitive choices and sticking to them.

The truth will mean purposeful planning and implementation of policies that have youth’s best interest as the only agenda — with their input, of course. The truth will mean earmarking funds for youth investments, skill building, training, coaching, mentoring, treatment, counseling, therapy, physical activities, arts, basic, alternative and advanced academic pursuits.

Yes, we’re going to have to spend some money. But wouldn’t you rather have a say in where your hard-earned money goes now? Because either way, we’re going to pay.

We can decide to pay a little less now, which has far more benefits than paying much more later — when we’re paying for more jail cells and three square meals for prisoners.

John Canda is program coordinator for Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers, a Portland youth advocacy and training program. He also is a former city gang outreach officer.